American Wilderness Odyssey
An 15-track album, a companion book and a live tour show.
“Ambitious, hypnotic, brooding, infused with sadness and joy, capturing the panorama of its physical and emotional canvas ... irresistible.”
15 songs. 15 months. One incredible journey.
In search of the moonshine, myth and madness of the Southern USA.
Music that is timeless and of the moment; deeply personal and yet universal.
And a show that will linger long in the soul.
“From Nashville to New Orleans evoking the desert landscapes and the joy of the freeway… the gumbo of origins that make the southern states the most musically creative place on earth… impressive”
Limited edition CD
£10 + p&p
The companion book
£12.50 + p&p
American Wilderness Odyssey…
The album
The companion book
The live tour show
The live tour show
American Wilderness Odyssey: the project
So this it. We have explored what we came to call the moonshine, the myth and the madness of it all. Moonshine? Taking a few simple ingredients and conjure something raw and potent. Myth? Immersing ourselves in the legend of America that has so beguiled the world. And the Madness? Discovering the America that lies within a monster and an angel, and is a place of shape-shifters, where lawmen become outlaws and outlaws turn to the light.
"We really believed we were onto something and became obsessed with creating a cycle of songs as a kind of personal voyage of discovery through the American Heartlands. It was a kind of ‘let’s do this!’ moment! We could see at one level this was ‘nuts’. We had no backing, limited funds and didn’t even know if there was a real audience for what we were about to do. But we knew we had to let the genie in and see what happened..."
The songs from the project have all been written by Steve Bonham, Steve and Kev, and Steve and Chris. Their starting point is not first the songs of others but the deep well of individual experience. They were inspired by the people, the landscape, the stories and the spirit of the Southern States of the USA. . Steve trekked through the brooding old testament forests and mountains of Appalachia in Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. He took road trips from Ashville to Nashville and New Orleans and then, trekking and driving, circumnavigated New Mexico. Kev set off in a classic old sedan to visit the hometowns and heroes of his youth spending six weeks on the road through Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana.
These songs taste gritty and real, the words rattling across the beat like a typewriter, raging against steel bars, painting images of hope and hurt, the dustbowl, downtown heartaches and impossible dreams ...
The songs of American Wilderness Odyssey
It may be a quality of great music that people hear in it something that resonates and calls to them personally summoning up their own particular ghosts, So it is with the music of Steve Bonham and The Long Road and their epic American Wilderness Odyssey. People have heard the spirit of early Laurel Canyon, recognised Americana, roots, folk music but not as they have ever heard it before, caught echoes of the Doors, early Eagles, Dr John even Pink Floyd.
These are songs of the open road and the less-beaten path. Literally so. For the spirit of the vagabond troubadour lives on and these songs are written from the direct, visceral experience of long treks and road trip across the southern states of the USA. The band say they went in search of the myth, madness and moonshine of USA and the 15 songs that arose explore the shadowy enchantment of the American Wilderness. The themes are of revenge and redemption, the loss of innocence, love at the edge of darkness, defiance and self-reliance and the strange resonant conversation between people and place. They’re about the extraordinary stories of ordinary folk.
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Enigmatic and mysterious it grew out of a trek on foot Steve made through the Appalachian forests and mountains, finding 4 days from anywhere, initials carved upon a tree. The structure shifts and changes with some great guitar from Kev and echoing ghostly piano from Chris. It is at once strange and yet absolutely Americana.
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This was written after visiting a ghost town at twilight in Northern New Mexico and finding the last resident was still there. One Ben C De Bacca who told him what happened to the place. A place once nicknamed ‘Sodom on the Mora’ where an outlaw rode his horse into a saloon and shot is because it wouldn’t take a drink. A place where the inhabitants were eventually cheated out of their land and the town faded to golden dust and empty walls.
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DescriptiA sense of threat, of being lost, a voice offering salvation but how real is it? The Long Road really play with their sound here, brooding bass, simple hypnotic rhythms, strange piano licks, acoustic guitar phrases that flicker in and out of consciousness.on text goes here
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Opening with a simple guitar riff, almost immediately the bass, drums and Hammond organ enter accompanying a wonderful strange vocal from Kev Moore which echoes in from the wilderness. Ostensibly the song is about a preacher calling out to crowds of football supporters crossing the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge for a game between the Nashville Titans and the Kansas city Chiefs but as the narrative unfurls the riverboats, slaves, the whores and gamblers rise up from the Cumberland River and lost times to join the crowd.
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This was a hit on independent radio globally and number 1 on UKCountry Radio. It sits in an easy groove as the old gunfighter finally finds the love of his life. And least for the time being.
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An epic powerful ballad. Travelling around the southern states trekking and road tripping, Steve came across the strange story of Paula Angel – said to be the first woman to be hung in New Mexico. The story follows her fate and the characters who are witness to it: Benedict the travelling judge, the gaoler, the feckless soldier, the baker and stableboy. If the Coen brothers wrote a song it would probably sound like this.
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A co-write between Steve and Chris and is a 'secular prayer’ borrowing chords from jazz and beyond. It celebrates the power within which we have within to stand strong as the wilderness threatens
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This one is a good ol’ piece of country rock in praise of the moonshine drivers of legend, people like Junior Johnson and Willie Clay Call (the Uncatchable). The distillery is still there and the spirit lives on!
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A song about Elvis and Steve! More fundamentally about the voodoo spell of rock’n’roll. Features a great acoustic guitar solo from Kev Moore who also played bass and drums on the album.
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This one is a brooding, almost cinematic depiction of a part of America (Appalachia) forgotten and abandoned despite its heart-breaking beauty. Based on Steve's trek on foot through the region it focuses on a world where no longer is it moonshine whiskey that is distilled in the backwoods, but 'Hillbilly Heroin' also known as crack cocaine. A place where a corporate greed had created a painkiller dependency that effects more or less every family. Steve and Kev share the vocals in a haunting and moving song
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A song from Steve and Kev: an incantation, a spell, the white witch of the prairie? A piece of country rock that demands an open car and the endless highway.
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In the great American tradition of ‘far-from home’ songs. Or maybe it should be ‘trying-to-get-back home songs. A consequence of the vast distances of the American landscape, a beautiful melody lies within.
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This takes a New Orleansy feel with Chris’s piano letting you know exactly where it is coming from. A surreal road trip of a song with an irresistible beat.
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A shuffling groove of a piece about illicit love and hound dogs on a man's trail. It features some wonderful rootsy piano from Chris 'the Bishop' Lydon.
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An elegiac, sweeping take on the broken dream of America. It is remembrance of a time that never was but is redolent with spirit and story. Geronimo, the barnstormer, the man in black, the bandit queen, ghost dancers and wild mustangs: of such things are legends made. A world of a rough kind of innocence.